Sawant maintains lead over Conlin in latest vote update

Kshama Sawant extended her narrow lead over Seattle City Councilmember Richard Conlin in updated vote totals released Wednesday afternoon.

Sawant led Conlin by 402 votes — 83,095 to 82,693. That translates to a 49.99 percent to 49.75 percent lead.

Sawant, who would be the first socialist on the nonpartisan council in recent history, first took a lead over Conlin, a four-term incumbent, on Tuesday — one week after carrying only 46.1 percent of the initial returns on election night.

On Wednesday, Sawant won about 52 percent of the roughly 6,000 counted votes in the race.

King County Elections estimates it still has to count about 8 percent of the ballots it has on hand.

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Politics Northwest is the go-to blog for politics in our region. The blog explores national, state and local political news and issues. Reporters from Washington, D.C., to Seattle City Hall to the state capital in Olympia contribute. Editors are Richard Wagoner and Beth Kaiman.